Jets game day: Rex Ryan has to gameplan against Detroit's home scoring rampage

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerCornerback Darrelle Revis will be a huge factor for the Jets against Detroit.

JETS GAME DAY

FOUR DOWNS WITH:
Jets safety/punt returner Jim Leonhard

Q. Last week you guys were consistently pinned deep in your own territory. Did Green Bay’s punter come out and surprise you? He struggled quite a bit up to that point.

A. Yeah, I mean he was potentially their MVP last week. He had struggles earlier in the season, hang-time wise, but he was just pounding the ball. Where he was putting the ball, right on the sideline with that hang, it was pretty easy to cover that kick. You give them a lot of credit, they took our return game away. You tip your hat to him.

Q. Is there anything you can do to stop that or reverse it?

A. Defensively you could get them in different downs or distances maybe try and get him out of his rhythm. There’s a number of things that go into it, but you give him credit because he probably had the day of his year. You deal with it because he just took our punt return right out of it.

Q. Last week Revis was almost exclusively on Greg Jennings in the second half, but there were some times he wasn’t. Why do you guys switch from a specific man-up and will it be like that against Calvin Johnson this week?

A. It just depends on the coverage. You’re not going to necessarily put Darrelle there because it’s a better matchup — he doesn’t play in there for certain coverages — fire zones and things like that. That’s not what he does, it’s a matchup thing and we got him on (Jennings) as much as we could.

Q. What do you have to do to increase the big-play factor on defense, and do you think you learned anything from Green Bay?

A. You just try and find more ways to create turnovers. When you have opportunities to make big plays, you have to do that whether you play well or poorly. We took a lot from it, a big passing team like that ... for the most part we responded pretty well to that challenge. You can’t dwell on a game you lose or win. It’s nothing new, especially coming out of a bye you don’t want to lose a game like that, especially playing poorly. You have to put it behind you quick. ... We’ll put it behind us and we have a big game that we need, we get to 6-2 and we’ll be all right.

The game revolves around ... Mike Pettine and Rex Ryan

The two men responsible for calling the Jets defensive plays have their hands full with a Lions team averaging 35 points per game at home. It was a statistic that Ryan came out and confidently downplayed over the past few days, saying that there’s no way the Lions will hit that number.

But quarterback Matthew Stafford is back from injury and playing well and, as always, star wide receiver Calvin Johnson makes life extremely difficult to scheme against.

Ryan said that Darrelle Revis will spend a majority of his time against Johnson to try to combat his effectiveness. Pettine said that Johnson has all the tools of a smaller possession receiver inside of a 6-5 frame that runs the 40 yard dash right around 4.4 seconds.

The two have orchestrated one of the league’s best defenses up to this point, but over-thinking this one could cost them in the end.

Three things the Lions don’t want the Jets to know:

1. Their D-line is enigmatic. Detroit specializes in pressure defense as one of the top-10 teams in the league in tackles for loss. But the one thing that doesn’t translate to is the run game. With the third-best run game in the NFL coming to town, Detroit needs to plug the sieve up front that’s ranked 27th in the league in run defense.

2. They don’t have a pure closer in the backfield. Don’t misinterpret this — Jahvid Best is definitely an emerging talent in this league. But with a 913-576 disadvantage in rushing yards, the Lions lack an option to milk valuable clock, a potential reason for so many of their tight losses this year.

3. Like Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford is young, and (less) experienced. Yes, Matthew Stafford has one of the best receivers in football in his corner in Calvin Johnson. But that doesn’t mean that the Jets defense can’t take advantage. Like Sanchez has been prone to the errant pass every once and a while, Stafford has, too, and the Jets have the cornerbacks to take advantage of it.

One more thing

Rex Ryan said that guard Brandon Moore can bench 600 pounds. Good thing, too, because he’ll be the primary point man against Detroit super-rookie Ndamukong Suh, who already has 6½ sacks from the defensive tackle slot.

Position breakdowns:

Quarterback: Lions head coach Jim Schwartz said that having Matthew Stafford back definitely contributes to a new energy surrounding the less-stagnant Lions. Still, Mark Sanchez is a safer bet even after a tough loss.
Edge: Jets

Running back: Jahvid Best is explosive, but he’s not there yet. Expect the Jets to return to ground-and-pound behind LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene.
Edge: Jets

Wide receivers: Yes, the Jets have depth. But the Lions have quite possibly the hardest receiver in football to cover. Calvin Johnson has 8 receiving touchdowns, the Jets have 10 total.
Edge: Lions

Offensive line:
The sack totals (11 for Jets, 12 for Lions) don’t offer any leeway. So instead, look at rushing yards. The Jets, despite going dormant last Sunday, are still the third-best rushing team in the league. Lions are 30th.
Edge: Jets

Defensive line:
The Lions have some intriguing pieces, like Ndamukong Suh, but a porous, 27th-ranked run defense raises a red flag. Jets have only allowed 88.7 yards per game.
Edge: Jets

Linebackers:
The Jets might be the best blitzing team the Lions have seen so far this year, but more importantly, they’re athletic enough to drop back and cover the pass.
Edge: Jets

Secondary:The Lions may have an immediate answer for either Braylon Edwards or Dustin Keller, but after that it’s a toss-up. Ndamukong Suh is tied for second on the team in picks but probably won’t be dropping back into coverage all that much.

Edge: Jets

Special teams:
We gave the Jets the edge last week and the Packers special teams essentially won them the game. Still, coordinator Mike Westhoff has been vocal about correcting some highly publicized errors from the Halloween scare.
Edge: Jets

Coaching:
Going out on a limb here, but Jim Schwartz has one-third of the firepower Rex Ryan does and he’s still got his team in the conversation to win this thing. That has to count for something.
Edge: Lions